Bruno joined the CBBP team in September, 2015. He majored in B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering at University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, and completed his Specialization in Vehicle Subsystems at Maua Institute of Technology. He is also Six Sigma Green Belt Certified. He has a background in automotive product development and management, vehicle testing and R&D for Powertrain Installations and worked for Ford Motor Company Brazil as an engineering team member for two global brand vehicle projects, having integrated contacts with the global Ford teams and Tier 1 and 2 suppliers in the US, Germany, China and India. During his period at Ford, Bruno was an essential part of the Focus car program launching team as a powertrain lead at Ford Argentina manufacturing plan. He achieved successful results in the project involving plastic lightweight by leading a global product R&D for Fuel Systems, and contributed to global specification review and release as an expert member. As far as his volunteering experience is concerned, he worked as a member of the national organization and expert committee of the SAE Mini-Baja Brazil competition for 2 years.

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Hamideh Hajiha, graduated with her Ph.D. in biocomposites from the University of Toronto. She has received a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto in chemical engineering and applied sciences. For her Master’s project she had to learn multivariate data analysis, SIMCAP. During her previous internships, she had worked on evaporation and crystallization at Georgia Tech, USA, and surface modification of natural fibres at Unicamp, Brazil.

John Balatinecz was born in Hungary, where he began his academic career. He earned his undergraduate degree in forestry from the University of B.C. in 1959. Subsequently, he obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Washington in 1963, and Ph.D. in wood science from the University of Toronto in 1966. He served as a professor of Wood Science and Forest Products at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto from 1966 to 1998. John passed away in 2017.

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Dr. Jimi Tjong is the Technical Leader and Manager of the Powertrain Engineering, Research and Development Centre (PERDC). It is a result-oriented organization capable of providing services ranging from the definition of the problem to the actual design, testing, verification and finally the implementation of solutions or measures. The Centre is currently the hub for Engineering, Research and Development that involved Canadian Universities, Government Laboratories, Canadian automotive parts and equipment suppliers.

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Numaira Obaid is a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto under the co-supervision of Professor Sain and Professor Kortschot. Prior to joining CBBP for her doctoral studies, she received her B.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering (Honours) from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Cooper is a Wood Scientist (B.Sc.F Toronto, M.Sc. Wood Science Oregon State U. and Ph.D. Wood Science U of Toronto) with more than 25 years research, teaching and consulting experience in wood deterioration and wood protection working with the Canadian Forest Products Laboratory in Vancouver (now FORINTEK), Iroquois Chemicals Ltd., the University of New Brunswick and the University of Toronto.

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Robenson Cherizol graduated in Chemical Engineering in 2006 at the Universidad de Oriente of Santiago of Cuba (2006). He obtained his Master’s degree at the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2011 at Universite Laval of Quebec (2011), Canada. February 2011, he integrated the research group of Professor Mohini Sain at the Centre for Biomaterials and Biocomposites Processing of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto and also enrolled for his Ph.D. at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Toronto. His doctorate research is realizing in collaboration with Ford Motors Company, which offered him to develop all his thesis research at the Industry and allow him to broaden his professional horizons.

Shiang Law is one of the senior researchers in the Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing. He has worked on natural fibre plastic composite project for past 20 odd years. He is familiar with most of the plastic processing machinery and mechanical testing equipment. Shiang Law’s current research project scopes the development of hybrid biocomposites using organic and inorganic fibres with renewable bioplastics.

Suhara Panthapulakkal has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto and she also holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Engineering from the Cochin University of Science and Technology, India. After completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Applied Chemistry from the University of Calicut, she completed another Master’s in Polymer Technology from the Cochin University of Science and Technology, India. She has been with the Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing (CBBP) since its inception. She has more than 3 peer reviewed publications to her credits in various international journals and several publications in conference proceedings. She is one of the inventors of the cellulosic microfiber processing technology for the development of high performance materials which has already been implemented by Greencore Composites. Her research interests include bio-fibers, bio-polymers, bio-composites, polymer composites, nanofibers and composites, hybrid composites, polymer blends, process and product development. Since July 2013, she has been working as the Project Manager of the NSERC Automotive Partnership Canada Project for developing high-end bio-composites for automotive applications.